Methods for finishing paved surfaces such as concrete presently use a paving machine to insert structural steel, slip form a slab, and screed and trowel the slab surface. Because contractors are frequently graded on the smoothness of the finished surface, it is desirable to profile the surface for determining whether modifications such as grinding are required.
Typically, pavement of a road is completed and the road surface is allowed to set up or cure to a point of hardness such that surface profile measurements may be taken for determining whether the surface meets smoothness requirements. The surface profile measurements are used to calculate index values for the road surface, such as Profile Index (PI) values and International Roughness Index (IRI) values.
After the paved surface has set up, a surface profile is taken with a profilograph, such as a California profilograph, which is wheeled along the road for creating a roughness profile of the road. Then, modifications to the road surface such as grinding may be conducted to meet specifications. This is a costly technique for altering the road surface.
Further, the importance of pavement planning is becoming more evident as contractors realize that well-planned pavement operations are cost effective. Contractors desire to analyze the subgrade of the road surface before the pavement of the road is completed for various reasons. For example, contractors can save paving material, reduce the cost of concrete slabs, and reduce the cost of road surface modifications if they predict an overall estimated volume of paving material based on subgrade conditions. Contractors also desire to predict repair prone areas for future pavement maintenance by locating thin or thick spots in a slab before the pavement of a road is completed.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a method for measuring a surface profile while the road surface is in a plastic state, for immediate modification of the surface as well as correction of paving machine settings. It would be also desirable to provide a computerized user-friendly system to take surface profile data, analyze the same, and generate a comprehensive report useful for planning and maintaining pavement.